Ingram Micro, AWS sign global distribution deal

Ingram Micro has expanded its global relationship with Amazon Web Services, including an Australian deal to distribute the vendor's solutions.

Under the arrangement, Ingram Micro Cloud, which is an AWS Advanced Consulting Partner, will help AWS expand its channel reach into 12 new countries in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa), LATAM (Latin America) and ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) markets, including Australia.

“With a variety of on-demand, pay as you go services, AWS offers resellers key infrastructure services to build and deliver solutions faster and at a lower cost,” Ingram Micro's Australian cloud boss Trent Gomersall said in a statement to CRN.

“Adding AWS to the Ingram Micro solution set delivers an immediate and powerful advantage to our resellers in Australia, providing access to one of the pioneers and leaders in a now-ubiquitous cloud technology.”

Ingram will be the first distributor to offer AWS procurement, provisioning, billing, maintenance, and support in a single panel, alongside other services available on its platform.

The distributor said the new agreement would equip its resellers for "the delivery of complete multivendor cloud solutions to their customers with a minimum of administrative overhead, maximising efficiency and margin".

Gomersall added that the distributor brings further value to AWS by making available pre-sales, sales and technical experts in support of resellers seeking to build or scale up their AWS business.

“Now more than ever, end user companies across Australia are either making the move to the cloud, or seriously considering it. This presents a considerable opportunity for resellers to create and deliver high-demand solutions, build recurring revenue streams, and accurately meet the evolving needs of their customers.”

He said that the Ingram Micro pre-sales technical support services would be particularly useful as they support resellers with guidance around solution design, documentation, and service recommendations.

Additional tools within the Ingram Micro Cloud include resources for billing optimisation and cost management, such as CloudCheckr, which supports assessment of the suitability for cloud solutions for individual customers.

Globally, the new relationship is a multi-year investment by Ingram Micro Cloud and AWS focusing on global expansion, Tim FitzGerald, vice president of global IaaS cloud channels for the distributor told CRN US.

The expansion comes even as Ingram Micro doubles down on its already strong relationship with AWS in North America, he said.

“For any partners not working with AWS, this is a big opportunity they should be paying attention to.

“There has never been a bigger opportunity to jump into infrastructure-as-a-service. A relatively small part of the channel is building this business now. But the opportunity is accelerating.

"This agreement signals Ingram Micro’s commitment to do more in this area and to better serve new and existing partners looking to do more with the AWS platform.”

Every functional area of the IaaS business will see a significant increase in resources from Ingram Micro, including sales, marketing and operations, FitzGerald said.

“This is a multi-year joint investment between Ingram Micro and AWS. This agreement gives a sense of the size and scale of the investment needed to win in the cloud.”